34 
MuseoMag   N°I 2025 
A FEMALE PAINTER FROM STRASBOURG 
STEPS INTO THE LIMELIGHT 
made her a favourite of Napoleon. Italian actress 
Sophia Loren played her in one of many 20th- 
century stage and cinema adaptations of her life 
(which is often mixed up with the biography of 
Hubscher’s contemporary, a female soldier called 
Marie-Thérèse Figueur), cementing her iconic nick- 
name for being shamelessly honest. Her portrait at 
the Nationalmusée dates from c. 1800 and shows 
Hubscher in a period marked by both prosperity 
and mourning – only one of her fourteen children 
reached adulthood. Her story is one of strength 
and resilience, qualities vividly captured by Monique 
Daniche in the compelling portrait, observing us with 
a twinkle in her eye and slight smile. 
A STYLISH YOUNG COUPLE 
In the course of 2025, the museum will also present 
two oval companion portraits (each 76 x 62 cm) by 
Monique Daniche, which were offered in a recent 
Paris auction as Portraits of Thérèse Tionchon née 
Ebenstrait (married 1793) holding a sheet of music 
and of her husband. It was challenging to find clues 
in the Alsace archives and other sources about the 
identity of the sitters, also because in the eighteenth 
century surnames weren’t always spelt the same, 
as we have seen with Daniche. However, after some 
preliminary research we can now confidently iden- 
tify them as Jeanne Louise Thérèse Hebenstreit 
(1770-1849) and Jean Nicolas Michel Tinchant (1770- 
1835), a young couple from Strasbourg. 
In her portrait, Thérèse is sitting in front of a piano- 
forte, or what appears to be a so-called pantaleon, 
while holding a sheet of music. Although we have not 
yet been able to identify the music, it must have a 
Monique Daniche (1737-1824), Portrait of Catherine Hubscher (1753-1835), known as “Madame Sans-Gêne” (detail), c. 1800. 
Oil on canvas, 63.5 x 54.5 cm. MNAHA collection. 
© 
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